Weeding between the lines

By Jim McGinty

Thus far, the 2020 gardening season has been wet and cool – torrential rain at times, an irritating drizzle an hour later, and daytime temperatures not exceeding 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  Perfect (!) weather for growing cool weather crops:  potatoes, onions, leeks, beets, cabbage, etc.  Let’s not just dismiss this “yukky” weather, and decide to wait for “real” Summer temperatures – we can successfully grow food now, while awaiting tomato and pepper planting time.  

Speaking of which, mid-June looks pretty good for finally setting those precious warm weather crops outside into the dirt:  beans, tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn and grinding corn, ornamental pumpkins and livestock-grade squash, tubular Styrofoam ® (I mean eggplant), and cucumbers.

Here at Rancho McGinty, the garlic stalks are 20 inches tall, and dark green – a result of an earlier application of chicken house litter and poo dust, I believe.  Potato plants are continuing to pop up (thanks to Joe S. for planting help), and I continue to hill dirt and compost over most of each plant as they reach for sunlight, in an effort to increase the spud yield.  Our onion and leek spears are about 10 inches tall, while the broccoli and cabbage plants look healthy and happy – and did I mention the asparagus spears – an early Spring application of organic “Vegetables Alive!” supplemental fertilizer (available from “Gardens Alive”, 513-354-1482, or on-line at Gardensalive.com) caused these two and three year old crowns to LAUNCH three feet long shoots into the air.  Next Spring, we harvest and EAT!

If your berry bushes and vines are leafing and flowering now, be sure to keep an appropriately-sized piece of floating row cover (Northwest Seed and Pet carries both Ree-May and Agribon brands) nearby, to throw over the fragile flowers, just in case we benefit (?) from a late frost – the row cover will protect your precious flowers down to plus 26 degrees or so.

Out in the orchard, the fruit trees are full of new leaves and fragrant flowers – we want to leave the trees alone now, to allow them time to decide what our harvest will look like.  By the end of June or early July, the flowers will have turned into baby fruit, and that will be a great time to thin the numbers of nickel- to golfball-sized immature fruit hanging from each branch:  6 to 12 inches between each fruit will help preclude them from banging into each other in the wind, and causing early fruit rot.

With all the recent (and well-appreciated, I’m sure!) rain, be sure to empty all those miscellaneous water catchers around the homestead, before the mosquitoes start breeding - we might yet have a mighty harvest of the droning bloodsuckers – a suboptimal consequence, in my opinion.

During this health-related opportunity to stay home, many families have decided to grow a first time garden (especially after seeing supermarket tomatoes with a five dollar per pound price!).  I recently visited with a local-to-me family to see how they were doing out in their new garden:  parents Brian and Carrie have an older, but reliable polyfilm greenhouse full of healthy plant starts, courtesy of hardworking Carrie and her sister Donna.  Brian is just finishing his solid-looking garden fence (pressure-treated four by fours extending nine feet above ground, and heavy-gauge black plastic deer netting), knowing as he does from his parent’s garden, that protection from the white-tailed marauders is paramount. 

The next step for the family (including youthful, if occasionally unfocussed helpers Jon, Malachi, Isaac, Kaleb, and Christian) is planting their food crops:  cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, some Spring garlic, and new asparagus crowns.  Later, the family will plant some warmer weather crops:  pepper, squash (sigh), beans, cucumbers, and sweet corn.

Then comes watering, weeding, fertilizer side-dressing, and finally harvest – it is satisfying work – a lot like raising a family.

GARDENING CALENDAR

Once again, I know of no nose-to-nose gardening events or classes this month, though the Newport Farmers’ Market (236 South Union Street) is now open on Saturdays, from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M., so you can go there for friendly farmer confrontations, produce, crafts, and plant starts.

On the internet, youtube continues to provide gardening education, though one must sort out the advice, coming as it does from both backyard gardeners and commercial gardeners with a platoon of unpaid interns.

You can also access our local garden club’s infallible information, pithy pictures, and scandalous scuttlebutt via our club blog here or our Elk-Camden Garden Club Facebook page. 

I see a break in the rain, and I’d better rush outside to – oh wait, it’s dripping again.  Shucks.